A very strange week!

HULL, United Kingdom—Last week I was in London at a Research Excellence Framework subpanel meeting and then in Glasgow at the 2014 Annual International Nursing Research Congress, sponsored by the Royal College of Nursing of the United Kingdom. In Glasgow, I launched, together with Wiley colleagues, Nursing Open with a huge cake bearing a facsimile of the journal’s cover. I have not had my name on a cake since my childhood birthdays.

The conference was very good. I spent the first day in the registration and exhibition hall, where I was able to do some very valuable networking, catch up with old friends and colleagues, and answer questions about Nursing Open and Journal of Advanced Nursing. At the end of the day, I co-presented a workshop on the use of social networking in nursing. Led by my good friend Alison Twycross, PhD, RN, head of Department for Children’s Nursing, London South Bank University, and my new friend, Calvin Moorley, PhD, RN, senior lecturer, London South Bank University (we had only previously met on Twitter), the workshop was well attended and generated a good discussion.

The evening began with a reception at the magnificent Glasgow City Chambers, followed by dinner with Wiley colleagues at Glasgow’s excellent Urban Bar and Brasserie. I had black pudding starter and haggis sausages, and you probably don’t want to know what either of these Scottish delicacies contain.

On my second day, I lined up some research sessions to attend, and I was not disappointed. I gravitate towards sessions on quantitative research, and there were some excellent methodological sessions on Rasch analysis, questionnaire development, and stress and burnout in nursing. In particular, I enjoyed meeting Nina Geuens, PhD student, Karel de Grote-Hogeschool, Belgium, and her supervisor, Erick Franck, professor in applied psychology in health care, Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium. My long journey home by train was filled with thoughts of the Sheffield half marathon I was due to run on Sunday, 6 April, which brings me to Part 2 of this entry.

Nina Geuens, Yours Truly, and Erick Franck

Rebel runners

My early mornings in London and Glasgow were taken up with final preparatory runs. I followed a very strict half-marathon training programme by Hal Higdon. As my children would say, I was “up for it.” If you Google “Sheffield half marathon” or, on Twitter, go to “#sheffieldhalfmarathon” or “#rebelrunners,” you will immediately see what an interesting day this turned out to be.

My wife and I arrived at the starting line, along with more than 5,000 others, at the appointed time and were then held there for 50 minutes without explanation. Rumours abounded but, as it turned out, insufficient water had been supplied for the number of runners involved and, at 9:50 a.m., the run was cancelled. What followed will go down in running history. A predominantly middle-class, law-abiding crowd of runners expressed its disgust the only way we could: We started running, and the police were unable to stop us. I don’t advocate civil or any other kind of disobedience, but this was one of the most moving events of my life. I think Mahatma Ghandi would have been very proud of us.

The general public of Sheffield, which had waited for more than an hour to watch us run, went into their houses, food shops, and coffee bars and emptied fridges and cupboards of all the bottles of water they could find. There were bottles of water on the top of parked cars and runners—normally a selfish and competitive bunch—were handing half-finished bottles to other runners. Where the official water stands were closed by race officials, people stood nearby handing out bottles and paper cups, along with the runners’ best friend: Jelly Babies. These incredible, high calorie-sweets are made in Sheffield, and they are exactly what you need halfway round a long route. If you eat them when you are not taking exercise, the sugar high that results is unique.

The intrepid Dr. Watson

Did I hear you ask how we fared in the race? Well, my wife dropped out, as she has to save herself for official races and has another one coming up soon. When I realised that the police had backed down and saw that the crowd of runners was beginning to snake its way through the town, I decided to complete the course, which was my first half-marathon. I enjoyed the first 10 miles but realised, at that point, that my plan for a fast final three miles was not going to happen. By 11 miles, I was considering ending it all by jumping into the oncoming traffic and, at 12 miles, had it not been for my wife and sister-in-law shouting my name, I might have knelt down and cried. But I carried on to the finish line and was glad to see that the organisers had decided to stay and hand out running vests, water, and medals.

My ambition was twofold: to remain standing at the end and to complete the run within two hours. My time: 1 hour, 47 minutes and 28 seconds and, with wobbly legs and bleeding nipples (exceedingly painful), I was still standing. Some might consider my inability to speak for a considerable length of time another positive result.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.

Home for Christmas

UNITED KINGDOM—I love Christmas, and I’m not afraid to admit it. There is the underlying Christian message, which, along with a dwindling minority in the U.K., I actually believe. I also like the more Victorian aspects of Christmas: Christmas trees, Christmas cards (if my wife writes them), and Christmas Day. Aware that many spend Christmas alone and face hardship here and across the world, I am grateful that my family gathers together. At some point in the holiday season, all of our eight children and five grandchildren will visit, plus husbands, partners, friends, and a dog. I won’t answer email for a fortnight. Initially, I suffer withdrawal symptoms and then settle down, to emerge at the other end ready to face the next year. And next year is going to be one of my busiest.

Looking back on 2013

This year has been busy, too, but not exceptional. I have been lucky to visit 13 countries outside the U.K., and past blogs recount my visits to Hong Kong, Italy, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Australia, the United States, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain. With the exception of Thailand, I have run in each of these places, which was one of my unstated goals for the year. My running miles on the ground this year amount to 700; my miles in the air 150,000. I am, I realise, very lucky to have the funding and freedom to do this.

Looking forward to 2014

A large part of my work next year will be taken up with the United Kingdom Research Excellence Framework (REF). A periodic exercise—recent ones, then called Research Assessment Exercises, took place in 2001 and 2008—it is the mechanism whereby the British government allocates core-research funding to British universities. I serve on the subpanel for dentistry, allied health professions, nursing, and pharmacy (subpanel 3 of main panel A), led by Hugh McKenna, CBE, FRCN, FAAN, pro-vice chancellor, research and innovation (equivalent to a university vice president) at the University of Ulster. 

McKenna a mental-health nurse, is one of the leading U.K. academic nurses. The REF is multifaceted, assessing research outputs (publications and patents), environment, and impact. However, at the heart of the exercise lies peer review, and the majority of the work is reading and rating publications for their international excellence. This will occupy almost all my waking hours between January and October 2014—in my office, on trains, and on planes.

I mentioned in a previous blog that I have been asked to lead a Lancet commission on U.K. nursing. This will take place over approximately the next two years, and I am in the process of assembling the commissioners this week. Once they are in place, the work of the commission can begin, and I will let you know who my colleagues are and keep you informed of progress. Each of the people I have contacted has received a statement from me, which is my assessment of the situation in the United Kingdom at present, and I have made this available on my own blog. Comments on this are welcome, as they will inform the commission.

Everyone’s an expert

Like last year, I thought I would make it to the end of the year without some public figure making an adverse pronouncement about nursing education, but I was wrong. This time it was Vince Cable, MP (member of Parliament), secretary of state for business, innovation, and skills in the British government. Cable claimed that degrees are superfluous to many jobs and, of course, he had to include nursing. I spotted this while I was in Singapore and, just as my blood pressure was rising, I saw that Ieuan Ellis, professor at Leeds Metropolitan University, had responded in the pages of THE (Times Higher Education).

I was especially gratified at his response, titled “Sterile debate,” because Ellis speaks with authority. He is chair of the U.K.’s Council of Deans of Health. Moreover, he is not a nurse; he is a physiotherapist and a pro-vice chancellor at Leeds Metropolitan University. In his response, Ellis said of Cable, “It is unfortunate that he is seemingly unaware of the benefits to patients of nurses being educated to degree level.” He cited a large body of work as follows: “The international RN4CAST study of nurses in more than 10 European countries (including England) shows that mortality is approximately 7 percent lower for every 10 percent increase in the proportion of nurses with degrees. This backs up work in the [United States] by University of Pennsylvania scholar Linda Aiken, who found that a 10 percent increase in the number of nurses with a bachelor’s degree was associated with a 5 percent reduction in the likelihood of patients dying within 30 days of admission.”

Season's greetings

I would like to thank the many people who have visited this blog; I hope that most of those who have read it will return in 2014. This is me, signing off for 2013 and wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.